4. Outlook and developments

The electrochemical co-production of hydrogen and value-added compounds coupled with renewable energies is undoubtedly an excellent way of helping to move away from the use of fossil resources. To be able to integrate electrochemical methods into biorefineries, it is essential to demonstrate their advantages over biotechnological or thermochemical methods of biomass valorization. In particular, it is imperative to be able to achieve very high activities and selectivities; to be able to convert highly concentrated sugar solutions at very high rates would be industrially very interesting and, finally, to achieve all this with the lowest possible power consumption would reduce operating costs.

The Pt ₉ Bi ₁ /C catalyst enables the activity and selectivity requirements to be met,...